Be 24meg broadband, anyone got it yet?

Hey guys, this is mainly a UK question, but i'm sure the US has these kind of speeds already so this is for everyone. £24 a month for unlimited 24meg broadband, https://www.bethere.co.uk/ (up until now the best the UK has had to offer is 8meg through dodgey companies like Bulldog, or cable). So is this LLU (Local Loop unbundling) technology reliable, or am I going to have as much down time as I do up time? This offer is too good to miss as i'm crawling at 2meg at the moment, but I'm with BT at the moment so the service is pretty reliable, although mor expensive and with a download limit.
Any thoughts?

 

Actually as far as broad band, you guys over seas are way ahead of us.

 

Are they? Verizon is offerring up to 30Mbps, and Cox has moved up to 15Mbps.

Thats not all areas, of course.

 

I'm on my happy 10mb at the mo but for a stonking £38 a month..... papa's company pays so I can't complain

 

I read an article on slashdot a while back talking about this, how places like japan and such have lots more people using broadband and high speed connections, can't seem to find the article now but its probably not true for most areas.

 

Well guys, don't feel too bad!! I pay $26.95 USD/month with SBC DSL, for a dowload speed of and average 80kb/sec, and ofcourse my upload speed is much less than that, and that is on a good day!! I've seen it fluctuate from 17-18kb/sec to 120kb/sec with no rhyme or reason for it!! I've spent hours on the phone with SBC thinking that mybe my firewall or something needs fine tuned, with no luck!!

Meanwhile...back at the ranch...gotta a little off subject there!! Granted that is ALOT better than dial-up, but I am a very impatient person!! WHen I click the button...I want immediate, lightening fast results, but unfortunately...my wife doesn't see the reason for spending 50-60 dollars/month for that!!

Roger

 

Europe is generally more connected than us UK lot, they're not afraid to rip out the crap and put in better stuff on a regular basis. Some of us still have long distance copper lines! That's crazy!

 

It is a bit bigger amount of copper to change over...

 

I think £24 a month is too much, regardless of how fast or unlimited it is.


Apart from ADSL+2, they are also trialling broadband via your power lines, meaning that wherever you have a power outlet, you have broadband, and it's fast at 24mbps.

 

Considering without ADSL you'd pay £40 a month for a 1MB line (asymetric), I think £24 a month for much faster is pretty reasonable.

We're currently paying premiums to keep overall network traffic down, because BT's infrastructure apparently can't cope with the number of people in the country who now have Internet access.

 

If it was £10 or even £15 a month, that wouldn't be too bad, but 24 is just too greedy as far as I'm concerned.


We don't have it that good here either, with Telstra owning and controlling the infrastructure and charging accordingly.

They even have broadband plans with a measly 200MB limit! (and it's not cheap)

 

In the UK, £25 for fast broadband is considered very reasonable.

 

Yeah, it's roughly about the same here, but I don't consider that reasonable.


Especially when you consider that over 90% of South Koreans (and other countries) have broadband, and it's much cheaper.

It's no wonder Telecommunications companies are so profitable.

 

we pay $50/month for comcast 6mbps it is really more like 3mbps and that is about the best you can get in Oregon.

 

I was under the mistaken belief that Broadband was cheap/er in the States?

The prices you guys are quoting aren't that much different to here.

 

yeah, but at least comcast has good supoport and it rarely goes down. our modem failed once so we called them, didn't have to be on hold at all, and best of all I could understand what the guy on the other end was saying, they came over the next day and replaced it with a motorola surfboard, it was free too.

 

We don't have ComCast here, but the prices mentioned are about the same.

I always thought the US was far cheaper than here?

 

Depends. Companies tend to screw people when they can. I pay 55 a month for 9Mbps, and am soon going to drop down to 40 a month for 6Mbps.

 

Doesn't really sound like it. I pay ~ $45.00/month US for "3 meg" ADSL (I usually see ~ 2.4 meg).

 

Surprisingly, it doesn't sound like you guys get broadband any cheaper.

What they like doing here is to offer you discounts for combining your home phone and broadboand with the one provider, as well as a discount for signing a long term contract, which I'm always wary of.


Do you guys, or in the UK, have any free ISP's?

We used to have FreeOnline here (pretty restrictive), but that's no longer.

 

That's not economically feasible in countries that are relatively small like the UK and the country I live in, the Netherlands.
They tested it 4, 5 years ago, it was fást but too expensive.
Besides, we're now humming along at 30Mbps via Cable which is available almost everywhere.
I've got 8Mbps down / 2 Mbps up for €45,- a month. unlimited downloads.
Add up the VoIP service and it totals at €55,- with packetdiscount.

 

It works in Tasmania OK so far, and is being expanded. (and Tasmania isn't exactly huge or has a large population)

The one they trialled years ago is old technology. They say it's greatly improved now.

Whether it will be adopted or not is another matter, as a lot of factors come into play, one being Telecommunication companies profits.


And 45 Euros isn't exactly cheap!

 

it's still better than what we used to pay.
besides, the 30mbit package is €65 a month.

 

Before this thread, I thought Broadband was expensive here compared to other countries.

This doesn't seem to be the case.

I can get ADSL+2 (up to 24mbps) with 20GB limit and an extra 20GB off peak for AUS$59.95 a month (about 25 British Pounds, $45 USD, 37 Euro). And the price is slowly dropping.